Teens need to take charge of their own education, Central Square sophomore writes

Jason Ashley, sophomore at Paul V. Moore High School in Central Square, wrote the following essay for Voices.

Schools don't teach us what we need to know to be successful in the world.

Too many parents rely on the schools to raise their children. That leaves little room for actual teaching in elementary school, so it must be made up in high school.

Unfortunately, that system fails us. As schools try to help students regain those precious years lost in the beginning, they are not teaching us what we should be taught in high school. It is a domino effect.

By the time we reach high school we have been in school for a minimum of nine years. Shouldn't we know most of the world's history, how to write a comparative essay, what's on the periodical table of elements and how to graph parabolas? High school should be spent on going deeper into these things, not continuing to take care of us.

For us to become contributing citizens in the world, we need to know why things happen the way they do. "That's the way it is" won't suffice. Without knowing the "why," there is no way we can know the "how." If we can't even understand the past, how can we ever understand the future? With the events going on in the world now, how useful is it going to be for us, the future of the world, to know the "what" of history, but not the "why" of history?

We need to take action if we are to truly inherit this world with the knowledge of how to use it. We need to grow up in class and actually learn what is being taught. Just because others have failed us doesn't mean we need to fail ourselves. We need to take our lives in our own hands.